Two years into office, President Donald Trump authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to launch a clandestine campaign on Chinese social media aimed at turning public opinion in China against its government, according to former U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the highly classified operation.

Three former officials told Reuters that the CIA created a small team of operatives who used bogus internet identities to spread negative narratives about Xi Jinping’s government while leaking disparaging intelligence to overseas news outlets. The effort, which began in 2019, has not been previously reported.

During the past decade, China has rapidly expanded its global footprint, forging military pacts, trade deals, and business partnerships with developing nations.

Although the U.S. officials declined to provide specific details of these operations, they said the disparaging narratives were based in fact despite being secretly released by intelligence operatives under false cover. The efforts within China were intended to foment paranoia among top leaders there, forcing its government to expend resources chasing intrusions into Beijing’s tightly controlled internet, two former officials said. “We wanted them chasing ghosts,” one of these former officials said.

    • Syn_Attck@lemmy.today
      2·
      8 months ago

      Sounds like something you’d like for voting

      If you think you can sus out my voting preferences by my ability to foresee something that’s fairly obvious when you stop and think about it, then you’re about as useful as GenAI generating realistic hands.

      why not the same for social media so we can identify the Russian trolls more easily?

      That’s what I’m talking about. How would you propose that’s done, in a way that actually works from a security perspective? Photo IDs can be stolen (or generated). You can buy USA fullz and a photoshopped selfie+ID from some Russian hacker for cheap in bulk. A few thousand dollars for a few thousand “ID verified” accounts. Real-time cryptographic ID keys is the only way one could realistically ensure that type of system works without being easily gamed. If it happens that’ll be the end of the Internet for me. Bring on Briar and shortwave radio.

      • lemmyman@lemmy.world
        1·
        8 months ago

        Apologies, I mistook you for another user and it made my comment moot. I deleted my comment soon after making it because of that in hopes you wouldn’t even see it, but I guess it doesn’t work that way.